Monday, March 12, 2012

Meditation Monday

I've decided to do a 20-week series called Meditation Monday, in which I focus on a different meditation or growth goal for the week. I'm starting with 20 because a friend shared this blog.

I love this list of 20 Things to Stop Doing to Others and have decided to focus each week on one of the items on the list. It pushes me to start the week with focused meditation and to set positive intentions for the week.

This week is #1 on the list: Stop Holding Grudges. My meditation today will focus not only on holding grudges, but also on being honest with myself. Unless I recognize the grudge, I can't let it go.

Inevitably, we all feel that we have been wronged in some way by someone. We harbor feelings of resentment. Holding a grudge and clinging to that feeling of being wronged gets in the way of present happiness. Letting go liberates us. This week I will focus on letting go of negativity, so that I can embrace the happiness and joy that exists around me.

During my 20-week commitment, I am connecting each week's meditation with a chapter from the incredible Thich Nhat Hanh book, True Love. The chapter for me that connects to the issue of grudges is "Overcoming Pride."

TNH writes, "in true love there is no place for pride," and encourages us to seek help/ask for help of the person who has hurt us (particularly when that person is someone you love). We often hold grudges against those we love when we feel they have hurt us or let us down. As he notes, when it is the one you love who hurts you, it causes the greatest suffering. If we hold on to that hurt and carry a grudge, the suffering will only grow and love will not be able to grow. So, this week, stop holding grudges.

2 comments:

Jenni,your Christian background definitely agrees with releasing the negative feelings of a grudge.Forgiveness is the centerpiece of Christian teaching,both divine to human and human to human forgiveness.Dr. Robert Enright,Univ.of WI believes Christianity,specificly Catholicism, can offer to the world a protocol for forgiveness much as Buddhism has offered the world a protocol for meditation.Be Well,In Christ, B.T.Mitchell

B.T. - Thanks for sharing this. Forgiveness is certainly connected to letting go of grudges and the Christian background I benefit from has much to offer in that area. I am thinking of, in the future, referencing chapters from the TNH book as well as, at times, relevant Christian texts or verses.